6 Year Old

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolf hound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ‘I know why.’

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, ‘People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?’ The Six-year-old continued, ‘Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.’

For many years, I had wanted to attend an evening Hot Air Balloon Glow at a very
large park in our city. Since we have a 15 yo exchange student this year, we
finally went. It was very crowded and I had to park over a mile from the venue. As
we walked along, our student took pictures of some fountains and we basically just
followed the crowd. My 9 and 6 year old daughters were excited and distracted me
from checking the name of the street closely.

When the event was over, it was very dark and as we walked along, the crowds began
to thin. We determined we had made a wrong turn and switched directions. At one
point my 6 year old said, “Down there!” Since she could not possibly know, we
trudged along and asked some other people we saw. We showed them the picture of the
fountains and they sent us a different way. It was getting later and later and it
was obvious we walked in circles. I was scared but trying not to show it. We were
all getting tired. Finally, after over an hour, we found the correct fountain and
turned the corner to see our lone car under the streetlights.

“I TOLD YOU!” yelled my six year old daughter! We laughed and it broke the tension. Ironically, had we
listened to the little one, we would have been on the street where the car was
parked!